Selah Audio Tempesta Review

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jonbee

Selah Audio Tempesta Review
« on: 20 Apr 2011, 03:09 am »
I apologise that this review is a bit longer than most, but these are worth the words, imo.
I've been at this hobby seriously for well over 40 years, and I've always been enamored by planars. My personal system high point featured Apogee Divas, huge 3 way true ribbons that produced a room sized soundstage that made you feel you could walk right onto the stage. People who heard them, even non-audiophiles, were truly rendered speechless by the experience. Transparency, dynamics, instrumental, and soundstage definition made the wall of believability evaporate to an amazing degree.
When I re-married in 1998 I gave up my system space, and since then I've been trying to find speakers that will fit the Diva experience into a smaller space. I first tried smaller planars; Quad ESL 63s and then Apogee Caliper Signatures. The Quads were too bandwidth and dynamically limited for me with or without subs and supertweeters; the Calipers, being 2 ways, didn't offer the smooth integration that the 3 way Divas did.
Next up was to try conventional floorstanding speakers- Merlin VSM-SE, Fried Studio V, VMPS 626 w/VMPS subs, Ohm Walsh 5, Thiel 3.6. All had their pluses and minuses, but I ended up stayng with the Thiels for 3 years. They certainly didn't have the transparency and immediacy of the planars, but did sound musical, wide range, and had fewer distracting flaws than the others. (I also tried dozens of small speakers, but none offered the scale and bass power I wanted in my living room system).
Over 4 years ago I bought VMPS RM30s, and with a pair of ACI Force subs I liked them a lot. With their planar mids and ribbon tweeters they came much closer to my personal standard, by providing a tall and wide soundstage, and quite good instrumental definition and precision. Still not quite up to the best I've heard, but very enjoyable.
Time marches on, and since I'm well north of 60 now, with arthritis developing steadily, I decided I needed to literally downsize my speakers in size (but not in quality), as it is getting more and more difficult to move these things around.
I've been looking seriously for a couple of years for smaller speakers, under 60 or 70 lbs., that offer the sound of the big planars, giving up only some bass extension and output limits if possible. I set my price bar at round $5k max, with the additional requirement that they must have beautiful cabinets (for the wife). I've bought quite a few candidates this past couple of years, and have reviewed several of those here.
The speakers that have come closest to displacing the RM30s are the Volent VL-2. I've owned them nearly 2 years. To me they are outstanding smaller speakers. They truly have the transparency and soundstage specificity of the Apogees, and quite deep and solid bass into the 30s. What they don't do as well as the bigger floorstanding speakers is to provide the soundstage size. Far from bad in this regard, but not close to the RM 30s, not to mention the Divas.
So my VL-2s are in my office system. In the nearfield, 5 feet away, they provide one of the best sonic experiences I've had.
After looking at many more candidates, I thought I'd see what Rick Craig at Selah Audio was up to. Selah Audio is one of the most unheralded speaker builders around. Rick has designed and built an astonishing array of speakers over many years (see his gallery here: http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?action=gallery;area=browse;album=299 ), always using great parts and beautiful cabinetry. He has earned great respect from his customers over a very long period of time. Custom designs are a big part of his business as well.
When I saw his Tempesta model, the top line standmount, I got pretty excited. These 22" high standmounts use some of the very best drivers around; RAAL ribbon tweeter, Accuton 2" ceramic upper midrange, and ScanSpeak's top line 7" Illuminator aluminum cone mid/bass woofers. The list price of the drivers alone is about $1600.
We all know that just putting expensive parts in a box achieves little. Rick has had a lot of experience with these drivers. He uses RAALs and Illuminators in most of his current models, and has built a number of designs using Accuton drivers. With that as a background I pulled the trigger and asked Rick to build me as good a pair as he could in Pau Ferro veneer. The fact that most speakers of this physical quality, from drivers to cabinetry, cost well north of $10k is a real incentive.
So- do these meet my specs?
Emphatically yes. First, they are great to look at. Pics here:
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=93156.0
 My wife loves them, visually and sonically, and she is pretty tough on both counts.
Sonically, on 20" stands, with about 11" behind them and 10 feet away (they are front ported, which helps with room placement), they offer a large soundstage, not quite as tall as the 4' tall RM30s, but very lifelike in size. Musicians are not miniaturized with these!
Spoken voice is a surprisingly tough test. Listening to radio, TV broadcasts, and singing with these is a lesson in midrange definition and neutrality. I've not heard the recorded human voice sound so natural.
Soundstage width is the best I've ever had in this room. They are exquisitely well balanced, from the mid 30s on up, and the imaging specificity, depth and focus are as good as I've ever heard. They do the disappearing speaker act better than anything I've owned; it is indeed hard to localize them in my room, and this is something I've not been able to achieve in this room before. They are very smooth and easy, yet exquisitely detailed and dynamic. I would talk about the sound of these wonderful drivers except that I don't hear them as such; the integration is about as good as it gets for 3 ways. In short, they get in the way of the music across the spectrum less than anything I've owned. I would still take the Divas over these if I had the space, because of the "wall of sound" they create, but in many other ways the Tempestas are better.
Sensitivity is moderate, and they will play as loud as I want them to without distortion.

So what are the weak points? Very few, and for me easy to live with. They will need subs to supply real weight below 35 hz. or so (a sealed box version is available for sub integration). The RAAL ribbon tweeters are extended, airy, and completely smooth and natural, but like all ribbons I've owned they seem dynamically less weighty than good domes (I've owned good speakers with Revelators, Hiquphons, Milleniums, Esotars, etc.). Some don't like ribbon tweeters for this reason, but for me the trade off is worth it. Taste plays a big role here, as always. The other issue is that they are while not hard or etched in any way, they are extremely accurate in a literal sense. The Volent VL-2 has similar range and level of detail, but they have a tad of extra energy in the midbass and a drop in the lower treble that makes the Volents sound a bit warmer and richer, with a weightier midbass, while the Selahs have better focus and definition in the midbass, and a drier sound overall. They might sound too self effacing for some, but I prefer not to hear the speaker at all, and the Tempestas do that as well as anything I've heard at any price.
I have no reservations in saying that I think the Tempestas have to be one of the worlds best mid sized speakers, in a world where most high end mfrs. seem to put their best efforts into huge pricey systems. For that they are worth every penny of their $4k price, and I doubt there is a better mid sized speaker anywhere at that price, even at used prices.
FYI- It is a leap of faith to lay out $4k for anything unheard, particularly something tied up with as much system variability and personal taste as speakers, and Rick at Selah offers a 45 day trial period. I don't know how many of his speakers get returned, but he'll not see this pair again. For me it was a risk well worth taking.
My system: Modwright sig truth sony 9100 player, Cullen modded PS audio CC-500 integrated, clearday/anti-IC cables, PS Audio Quintet filter
« Last Edit: 20 Apr 2011, 04:09 am by jonbee »

navin

Re: Selah Audio Tempesta Review
« Reply #1 on: 11 Mar 2012, 01:09 pm »
Jonbee,

Given that the sensitivity and bass weight of the Tempesta are it's limitaions I think an "Extreme" upgrade is on the cards.  :wink:
Ofcourse the crossover will have to be changed as well.

jonbee

Re: Selah Audio Tempesta Review
« Reply #2 on: 11 Mar 2012, 04:26 pm »
My personal preference would the Tempesta with a pair of our TC12 or TC15 powered subs. I like the advantage of having some active control because my room (like most others) has some bass peaks to be contained. In my opinion any speaker company going for state-of-the-art with a design should include active subs - even better is some DSP (DEQX,etc).
In my experience as well, there are real benefits to separating the deep bass producer and its location from the upper range producer. Optimum room placement for the < 50 hz. source is not the same the same location as the best sounding location for the mids and highs.
For this reason I've always used an active sub or two, even with full range speakers. For me, it has been my preferred route to full range sound, making the full range speaker placement conundrum much more manageable.
The best subs I've heard are the big VMPS subs, but they are huge. I live in a condo, so space is at a premium. I use a James EMB-1000, a small 12" cube that is one of the best sounding subs I've heard, with solid response into the mid 20s at least. I've tried a dozen well reviewed small subs from many of the big names (Carver, Sunfire, Velodyne, ACI, Def Tech, etc.), and this one stands above the rest, standing toe to toe with really good big subs for music except in loudness capability and response below ~25 hz. It blends very well with the Ts- you can never hear that it is on at all, but it takes the Ts to true full range.
Since the Ts are very strong to well below 40 hz., the sub can be x'd over very low. I use 40 hz. @ 24 db/octave, and there is no audible interference that I can detect. Bass lines from top to bottom are smooth and of uniform tonality and imaging.
This is why even if there was a "full range" Tempesta, I'd stick with what I have.
« Last Edit: 11 Mar 2012, 09:14 pm by jonbee »

Tyson

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Re: Selah Audio Tempesta Review
« Reply #3 on: 11 Mar 2012, 08:11 pm »
I've not heard the Tempesta's, but I've heard several of Rick's offerings at RMAF and they were all excellent.  Using a small, physically hard, upper midrange driver to couple to a ribbon tweeter seems especially smart, as ribbon tweeters have a really hard time sounding good at the 1.5 to 3khz crossover point that most 5 or 6 inch midwoofers require. 

Re: bass and living in a condo - this is where OB subs are a godsend - far less room problems than a standard boxed sub, and they tend to load the room a bit differently, resulting in less bass-bleed to your neighbors.  I highly recommend any OB sub, or better yet, a pair of them used as stands for the main speakers.  OB subs do not have to be corner loaded, and play very well when physically co-located with the main speakers (ie, as stands).  Takes up a lot less room too, as they have a very small footprint. 

kip_

Re: Selah Audio Tempesta Review
« Reply #4 on: 11 Mar 2012, 09:07 pm »

Re: bass and living in a condo - this is where OB subs are a godsend - far less room problems than a standard boxed sub, and they tend to load the room a bit differently, resulting in less bass-bleed to your neighbors.  I highly recommend any OB sub, or better yet, a pair of them used as stands for the main speakers.  OB subs do not have to be corner loaded, and play very well when physically co-located with the main speakers (ie, as stands).  Takes up a lot less room too, as they have a very small footprint.

I'm not quite sure how this would work? What kind of OB enclosure (or lack thereof) could hold a 20 pound monitor? Do you have a picture handy?

Apartment living with a subwoofer is perfectly doable. Just keep your levels reasonable and don't watch action moves after 10pm. You can also put the subwoofer right next to your couch, nearfield, and use it as an end table (possibly with a piece of glass on top) and lower the gain. I used 10" Outlaw sub in a 3rd floor apartment for almost 2 years and got zero noise complaints. I had it
cranked to 95-100db at times too, but I wasn't stupid about when I watched movies.

One final thing you can do is put it on a subdude isolation pad to decouple it from the floor. This should also stop it from rattling objects on walls.

Tyson

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Re: Selah Audio Tempesta Review
« Reply #5 on: 11 Mar 2012, 09:20 pm »
An H-Frame would work quite nicely.